Tag Archives: session time

I was listening to the HBR Idealist podcast where they interviewed Phil Libin of Evernote about new ways we will work. In the interview he revealed some interesting stats that I think is great insight for all startups who are developing multi platform aps (web, mobile, wearables).

Its probably fairly obvious to say the more mobile the device, the smaller the form the shorter the session time (time spent using the app), your unlikely to read a 50 page document on your Apple watch but you might glance at a txt message. What was interesting but not something I had really thought about was that as the device shrinks the session time goes down but the number of sessions goes up. So when you are designing for mobile or designing for a wearable you are really not designing for a smaller screen you are designing for less time. Phil Libin used the term designing snackable content which I think explains the user behaviour well. This means if you have a web app today you are deciding what elements are important for the experience on a wearable not how do we cram what we have into the small screen space.

Evernote figures show the difference between platform session times and session numbers and its very different. How do you build a product that is used 200 time a day for just 5 seconds per session, that’s a very different product to one that is used for 40 minutes once per day.

It’s certainly something I had not really thought about but it shows a lot more thought and therefore cost is going to be required when you are developing across platforms as diverse as desktop, mobile and wearables.